Arena Profile: Doug Heye

A twenty-year veteran of political campaigns throughout the nation, Doug Heye most recently served as Communications Director for the Republican National Committee. Heye has also served as a press secretary and communications director in the United States Senate, House of Representatives and the Executive Branch.

Doug Heye's Recent Discussions

Has Boehner lost control of the House?

The premise of the question is flawed.

Last year, Nancy Pelosi lost control of both her conference, as incumbent Democrats campaigned to "stand up" to Pelosi and President Obama" and the House itself, as voters rejected the policies of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi and gave Republicans a 63 seat pick up. By contrast, the entire House GOP Conference stood behind Speaker John Boehner as he announced conferees. House Republicans are unified. We saw that today and we will see it on the campaign trail in 2012.

Will new job numbers boost Obama?

And will Congress give up insider trading?

The White House and the Democratic National Committee should be cautious about trumpeting these numbers too wildly.

Not only could the rate creep back up, which Democrats would then have a hard time explaining, but the report was anything but uniformly positive. The news that the labor participation rate fell is bad news for the economy and bad news for the Obama campaign. It means that 310,000 Americans have not only given up on looking for work, but also given up on that key Obama word: hope.

Can Nancy Pelosi retake the House?

Anything can happen in politics, but, despite Pelosi's prolific fundraising, Democrats retaking the House is on the outer edges of reality. Last year's elections put Republicans in control of state legislatures throughout the country, a key boost for redistricting.

Meanwhile, we are seeing top tier Republicans step up to challenge vulnerable Democrats. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in North Carolina's 8th Congressional District, where Richard Hudson, a former aide to Rep. Robin Hayes who has proven a strong fundraiser just weeks into his candidacy, is challenging Democratic Rep. Larry Kissell, already vulnerable and facing a tougher district through redistricting.

If Republicans are able to play offense in key districts such as NC-8, Democrats have two chances of retaking the House: slim and none.

Can Herman Cain survive?

Certainly the allegations take Cain off his game plan and threatens his momentum. Fairly or unfairly, the Cain campaign - and Herman Cain himself - will have to answer questions on what either did or did not happen and then put those questions to rest. The process can be an ordeal, but the mechanics are ultimately easy: find out the truth, tell the truth. Do so quickly and consistently. Rinse and repeat.

Eric Cantor, statesman?

Obviously it can't President Obama's fault that his proposals have trouble passing even the Democratically-controlled Senate, so the left needs a foil. Enter Eric Cantor.

The problem with this straw man creation - created in part by President Obama himself - is that the anti-Cantor rhetoric does not match the reality. Indeed, the left targets Cantor because he's substantive on policy issues and has offered real plans to counter the president's rhetoric - a strength they're trying to bring down. Cantor refuses to raise taxes like the President Obama demands - despite the president saying we should not raise taxes in a time of recession - yet has repeatedly said there are many areas of the Obama jobs bill that are worth considering, comments repeatedly ignored by Democrats.

Specifically regarding disaster funding, it should be noted that Cantor never suggested that we should not help those suffering, only that a Congress facing a $14 trillion federal deficit has a responsibility to figure out how to pay for it. Do those who attack Cantor believe that we should not prioritize spending? If so, their criticisms would be better directed at Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. 900 days and counting, he still hasn't passed a budget.

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The Arena is a cross-party, cross-discipline forum for intelligent and lively conversation about political and policy issues. Contributors have been selected by POLITICO staff and editors. David Mark, Arena's moderator, is a Senior Editor at POLITICO. Each morning, POLITICO sends a question based on that day's news to all contributors.